This invention relates to high voltage circuit interrupters, and more specifically relates to a puffer-type circuit interrupter employing a novel two-piece movable arcing contact.
Puffer-type interrupters are well known and a typical interrupter-type device is shown in Brown Boveri Mitt. 64, 1977 (11), page 629, FIG. 2.
In puffer-type interrupters such as that shown in the above disclosure, a movable assembly consisting of an insulation nozzle and a movable arc contact must be moved together during the opening and closing operations of the interrupter. Since the arcing contact assembly is a single assembly, its entire mass must be moved during the opening and closing operations. During the closing operation, the movable contact comes to an abrupt stop when it engages the stationary contact. Since the arcing contact assembly is relatively massive, there is an undesirable contact bounce following the abrupt stop. Furthermore, since the entire mass of the arcing contact assembly must be accelerated during the opening operation, high operating force is required to obtain a given speed of separation of the contacts.